Gold nanoparticles have found use in biology, medicine, electronics, materials science, and chemistry due to their stability, their well-established surface chemistry, and the ability to tune how they interact with light. However, their ultimate utility requires each individual nanoparticle to be representative of the whole, such that behavior of individual species is reproducible, reliable, and can be determined from bulk measurements.
While methods exist to control the uniformity of pseudo-spherical- and rod-shaped gold nanoparticles, the yield and uniformity of other nanoparticle shapes are more difficult to control. Thus, a need exists for methods of synthesizing nanoparticles of uniform shape.